The Danger Of Believing Your Own Lies And Propaganda
I learned to ride jumping horses as a teenager from an old cavalry trooper. Sadly, my English riding and jumping style reflects that early instruction where function was valued over form. It wouldn’t be an issue, except here in America, only the affluent and those who want to appear affluent compose the majority of those who ride jumpers and they have spent years and tens of thousands of dollars to fine tune the image of how they appear or the image they want to project while riding: European riders have disdain for the American rider who seldom ventures beyond the arena; in Europe, they spend their time and money on being able to negotiate difficult courses on horses that aren’t trained to the Nth degree, while being able to train recalcitrant horses to perform at the highest international levels. Americans would rather spend hundreds of thousands or even millions on the easy to ride or push button horse that will win a rosette and a ribbon.
